Share this article

Royal Caribbean, whose ships are registered in the Bahamas, allows couples to exchange vows in the on-board chapel – or while scuba diving in the Caribbean.

Norwegian Cruises run wedding packakges around the Bahamas, Hawaii or Bermuda.

In Seventies US TV hit, The Love Boat, a couple got married on a voyage around Alaska.

Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart married on the seas in The African Queen – but on a German gunboat where they were due to be executed.

In 2011 Cunard moved Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 out of the UK to Bermuda so it could carry out marriages on board.

UK law only allows weddings at sea if couples bring their own notary or religious minister and as a result they are extremely rare.

Many other countries including those some in Scandinavia allow the ship’s captain to marry couples.

Seven out of eight P&O Cruises liners are flagged in Bermuda – allowing them to offer weddings

It is hoped weddings carried out by captains could be a draw for returning them to both the British flag, and paying tax in Britain

However Britannia, its newest vessel and the largest ever cruise ship, retains the British ensign. A company spokesman declined to comment on the move.

For many couples a wedding at sea is a fraction of the price of holding one in the UK and combines marriage and honeymoon in one trip.

According to research, the average bill for a wedding ashore is about £20,000 whereas cruise companies offer packages for as little as £800.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill is understood to be looking for an opportunity to bring forward a law but no timetable has been set.

It is widely believed that ships’ captains can conduct marriages at sea. In The African Queen, the film based on the novel by C.S. Forester, the characters played by Humphrey Bogart Katherine Hepburn are led onto the deck of a German gunboat to be executed.

Their final request to be married is granted by the German gunboat captain.